Math Resources, Projects, and Messes, OH MY!

Good morning!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! It's HOT here. So hot that I've left my window AC and two fans on for 2 days straight just to keep the apartment below 80 degrees. But I'm also enjoying the AC before I get my key today for my classroom, which has no AC.

Did I mention I get my key!? I emailed my boss yesterday because I'm so patient and he let me know that I could pick up my key this afternoon. Does 12:01pm count?

If you didn't know, my school is being rebuilt so we are in a temporary building and so I'll be walking into a room filled with boxes...and not just my boxes. Boxes from the previous teacher. And boxes from the storage room. ALL THE BOXES!

I have to apologize now if this post seems scattered. I'm definitely well into my second cup of coffee and I had the brilliant idea to freeze coffee in my ice tray so it wouldn't water down my coffee and I'm the most jittery.

Alright. Here's to refocusing. Being locked out of my classroom has been tough but I have found a way to be super productive with my time and I thought I would share some great resources with you all. I've had to switch my thinking up as I move from 2nd to 5th. One thing I really have tried to focus on is differentiated challenge. That means that no matter what level a student is performing at, they are being challenged at the right level. Usually, I'm know for creating my own resources but this year, I decided to explore what's out there so I could 1) save some time and 2) utilize some amazing resources that are already available. I purchased this "How Did You Solve It?" math card kit from Lakeshore Learning Store. Our curriculum is Common Core aligned so having this kit already be aligned to that will help me when deciding what cards to pull and how to be more intentional in my planning.

When you open up the box, you see that the cards are organized into 4 main clusters. Each tabbed divider tells you which cards addresses which standard. At the very back of the box, the manual gives the answer. Some answers will vary depending on how the student interprets the question, which is a great way for students to work on higher-level thinking skills. Other questions are looking for one specific answer, which is great for skills practice. I really love this set and plan on using it as a part of my math centers, which I will explain later in this post. I feel like it allows students to practice skills wherever they may be in their math journey.




The next picture shows an example of one of the cards. I love that it asks what you need to know to solve the problem before asking the students to solve the problem. It really gets them into the mindset and forces them to think about the concept!

A project I've been working on for math is math centers. If you follow Miss Fifth on Instagram or Facebook, you know she's an amazing teacher with crazy good ideas. One idea that I loved, and she explained really well in a video on her Facebook page, is how she runs math centers. This is something I loved doing in 2nd grade but sometimes it felt so unmanageable. Well, Miss Fifth does them once a week on Friday and it serves as a review of the content from that week. She has an amazing bulletin board for centers that I fell in love with. I've linked it here. If you are thinking about doing centers this year for math or ELA, you should check out her stuff. I definitely would have used it this year. Unfortunately with all the moving and changes coming in the next two years, I just couldn't pull the trigger on buying and making the supplies. Plus, my classroom has really limited wall space. That being said, I improvised and made a Smartboard that does the same thing. I won't be putting this up on TPT because that would feel like stealing her idea but here is a peek at it. It took several hours to make but I think it will be really worth it.

My next post will be about the Literacy resources I have found and will be using but I'm still playing around with my center ideas...see:

Well, I'm off to get my key. I think we all knew I wouldn't make it until noon.

Enjoy the sunshine my friends!
Kati